At the tail end of a career that reached the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Iván "Pudge" Rodríguez was a late spring signing during 2009 when the rest of the catchers in camp were hitting very poorly. He supplied his share of big moments both at and behind the plate but, when it became clear that the Astros were fading from the pennant race, Houston dealt him to the Rangers for prospects.

While in Houston, Rodríguez smacked his 300th career homer, marking the first of three Astros (Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee the other two) to hit their 300th homer in the same year.

Pudge was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017. In his 21 big league seasons, the Puerto Rican backstop batted .296 with 311 homers, 1332 RBIs and a .798 career OPS while winning the 1999 AL MVP award, named to 14 All-Star teams, 13 Gold Gloves and 7 Silver Slugger Awards. He won a Worlds Championship while leading the 2003 Marlins. His 2,844 hits rank 49th on the all-time list through 2019.